Thanjavur: Even six years after a case was registered, police are yet to nab the conman who duped about 50 students of three reputed institutions, including Periyar Maniammai University, Thanjavur, on the pretext of recruiting them through campus interviews for his alleged branch in Dubai.

The employment cell of the varsity organised campus interviews in 2011 inviting various firms. Trouble began when the Kerala-based private company Sixo Online Software Solutions, run by conman Liaquat Ali Khan of Tiruchy, participated and recruited candidates.

A total of 33 final year students were selected by the company and even issued offer letters. Rajiv, who recruited the candidates on behalf of the firm, collected Rs. 50,000 each from the selected candidates for processing visas and buying air tickets.

The selected candidates were taken to its branch office in Coimbatore and given training for four days. Then, some existing employees warned the new recruits that the company was not paying salaries regularly, and that Khan and his associates were in the habit of cheating others promising to send them to Dubai for employment.

The alerted recruits asked Rajiv to return the amount. Rajiv, however, told the candidates PMU Vice-Chancellor Dr Ramachandran had taken a cut and promised to return Rs. 40,000 within 15 days. The company did not return the money but wound off its Coimbatore branch, R Sathyaraj, an affected candidate, said in his complaint.

Based on his complaint, Vallam Police registered a cheating case against Khan, Rajiv, Vice-Chancellor Dr N Ramachandran and Prof Rajasekaran of the varsity.

When asked about the present status of the case, a senior police officer said that he was unaware of the existence of such a complaint as he had recently assumed charge. He, however, said he would look into the complaint.

University officials, however, passed the buck to Sixo. An official on condition of anonymity, however, admitted that the university had failed to perform a background check on Sixo.